Day: April 3, 2024
On April 3, the parliamentary majority leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced the reintroduction of the draft law on foreign agents, which the GD had to withdraw last year after the on March 7-9 massive rallies against the bill. According to Mdinaradze, the content of the bill remains the same, the only change is in the title: the word “agent” has been removed and replaced with “Organization Carrying Out the Interests of a Foreign Power”.
Civil.ge has compiled the reactions to the reintroduction of the Russian Law.
Opposition
Teona Akubardia, Parliamentary faction Reforms Group: “Georgian Dream” announced the final struggle against the declared interest of Georgia in becoming a member of the European Union and [against us-Georgian citizens] to be citizens of a democratic state. The announcement about the return of the Russian law, which has now been made by one of the leaders of the Georgian Dream, takes us back to the past. In this context, the decisive phase of the struggle is [about] what kind of a state we will live in, and we will continue the unrelenting struggle for Georgian democracy and the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Georgia”.
Ana Natsvlishvili, Lelo for Georgia: “Georgian Dream” is losing, and like any evil power, it has decided to drag the whole country into its failure. This will not work. The Russian law was introduced in the first place in order to tie this country by chains to Russia, while you, we and all reasonable citizens of this country have very clearly made and stated our choice”.
Khatia Dekanoidze, parliamentary faction Euro-optimists: “I appeal to everyone, including women, who are the majority of the population of this country, young people, all people… who stood with us last March, we must all do everything together to not allow the Georgian Dream to take our country backwards”.
Ana Tsitlidze, United National Movement: “Ivanishvili’s party and the European integration of Georgia are incompatible. Ivanishvili’s party will do even more to damage the European course of this country and it is the duty of each of us to fight, like before, to the end to prevent this Russian law from being adopted by the Parliament”.
Giorgi Vashadze, Strategy Aghmashenebeli: “A direct, clear statement was made today by the Georgian Dream that it does not want [Georgia] to join the European Union. That’s it. It’s over. Period. There is really no other explanation for this initiative”.
International Partners
Petras Auštrevičius, Member of the European Parliament :”Looks like the ruling party of Georgia is turning towards the Euro-Asian tyranny. There is no compromise between EU and the later one as democratic criteria is not for negotiation”.
More to follow…
Georgia’s annual inflation rate amounted to 0.5% in March 2024, the National Statistics Office (Geostat) reported on April 3. On a monthly basis, meanwhile, consumer prices increased by 0.01%.
The annual inflation rate was primarily driven by price changes in miscellaneous goods and services (10.2% increase); transport (8.1% increase); alcoholic beverages and tobacco (4.5% increase); and food and non-alcoholic beverages (3.4% decrease).
Source: GeostatThe monthly inflation rate was mainly driven by price changes in miscellaneous goods and services (1.4% increase); transport (0.8% increase); and health (1.5% decrease).
As for food and non-alcoholic beverages, prices decreased this year for the following subgroups: oils and fats (-19.4%); vegetables (-15.3%); bread and cereals (-8.9%); milk, cheese and eggs (-3.9%). At the same time, the prices increased for the following subgroups: fruit and grapes (25.7%); mineral waters, soft drinks, fruit and vegetable juices (5.1%); meat (2.8%); coffee, tea and cocoa (2.1%); fish (1.3%).
Also Read:
- 04/03/2024 – Georgia’s Annual Inflation at 0.3% in February 2024
- 02/02/2024 – Georgia’s Annual Inflation at 0.0% in January 2024
- 08/01/2024 – Georgia’s Annual Inflation at 0.4% in December 2023
- 04/12/2023 – Georgia’s Annual Inflation at 0.1% in November
On April 3, the parliamentary majority leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Mamuka Mdinaradze, announced the reintroduction of the draft law on foreign agents, which was dropped last year after the massive rallies on March 7-9. According to Mdinaradze, the content of the bill remains the same, the only change is in the title: the word “agent” in it has been removed and the title has been replaced with “Organization Carrying Out the Interests of a Foreign Power”.
“The parliamentary majority, after consultation with the political council of the party, has decided to reintroduce the draft law “On Transparency of Foreign Influence” to the Parliament. The bill will be introduced in the Parliament of Georgia with exactly the same text as it was introduced last year, with only one difference. You all remember that last year we introduced the bill and immediately after the introduction we expressed our readiness to replace the term “agent of foreign influence” with another term. In the draft law we are introducing today, the term “organization carrying the interests of a foreign power” will be used instead of the term “agent of foreign influence”,” – stated Mdinaradze during his press briefing.
Mdinaradze reiterated the GD party’s narrative from last year, claiming that the bill only requires organizations that receive foreign funding to publish their own annual financial report, with only financial penalties for violations.
Parliamentary Majority Statement
In its statement, the parliamentary majority emphasizes that the “civil sector remains the most non-transparent sector in Georgia”, and claims that the lack of transparency poses “the most important challenges for state security,” which they believe is proven by the events of the past four years.
The statement notes that during the past elections the NGOs “falsified” the results of the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT), which gave the “radical opposition” an excuse for “sabotage and the nonrecognition of the election results”. “Accordingly, wealthy NGOs were not only at the heart of the revolutionary scenario in 2020-21 but also assumed the function of its primary initiators.”
The statement also refers to the second “revolutionary scenario” in June 2022, after the EU’s decision to not grant Georgia the candidate country status. During the rallies, GD claims the “wealthy NGOs went all in and completely exposed their political essence and radical agenda as they hoped to achieve results and return to power together with the collective National Movement.” They also reiterate their “second front” narrative, stating that at that time the NGOs called for Georgia to “attack Russia” and “get involved in the war.”
“For years, the so-called NGOs have been waging a Soviet-style campaign against the independence of the judiciary. To this end, they stigmatize the judiciary and judges. Despite the fact that NGOs have thus far failed to present court cases that would demonstrate the existence of systemic or even relatively serious non-systemic problems within the judiciary, they still persist in carrying out the above campaign and, using nontransparent finances, they are trying to undermine this important state institution to this day,” – reads the statement.
GD claims that the criticism of the judiciary is always linked to cases involving UNM representatives: “These were the cases of Rustavi 2, Gigi Ugulava, Nikanor Melia, Nika Gvaramia, Mikheil Saakashvili, and other politically sensitive cases over which nongovernmental organizations have actively tried to discredit the court and specific judges.”
“We would also like to remind you that the NGOs had no reaction when, in contravention of the Bangalore Principles, effective sanctions were imposed on both former and current Georgian judges, extending even to their adult and minor family members, which is an extreme form of gross violation of basic human rights. All of this demonstrates that the rule of law and basic human rights are worthless to the so-called nongovernmental sector,” – highlights the statement.
In addition, the GD blames NGOs for spreading “pseudo-liberal ideology and so-called LGBT propaganda”, as well as carrying out “campaigns that aim to undermine public trust in the Georgian Orthodox Church”. They also mention that the NGOs “hysterical campaign” was headed by the former US Ambassador Kelly Degnan, blaming her for representing “the interests not of this country but of the “Global War Party” in Georgia”
The statement particularly specifies the “specific instances of the funding of extremism in Georgia”, blaming “Droa, the Franklin Club, Canvas trainings, as well as the funding of other associations and events from foreign funds that promoted radicalism and so-called polarization in Georgia.” They stress that Droa’s funding “demonstrate the harshness of the corresponding foreign power’s attitude towards the Constitution and the legislation of Georgia”, since foreign funding of political party is “strictly limited in developed countries”
The parliamentary majority also puts blame on the European Endowment for Democracy (EED), stating that it “already had an illegitimate impact on the 2024 elections, which would have been reported by the so-called local observer organizations, had the corresponding NGOs not been funded from the same sources.”
“Considering all of the above, we are not surprised that the former ambassador told the Georgian citizens a disgraceful lie last year, labeling the draft law – which was copied from the American law and had nothing in common with the law in force in Russia – as a “Russian law.” Given that the practice of supporting extremism in Georgia has weakened under the new ambassador, we hope that the incumbent ambassador will not stoop to telling the Georgian people such lies,” – reads the statement.
The GD statement notes that although the bill was dropped last year, it still had an impact on reducing the funding of extremism, but adds that ” such practice has not been completely eliminated”. “During this period, we held consultations concerning the transparency of finances of the largest American and European foundations, including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the European Endowment for Democracy (EED). However, we have not made any progress in ensuring the transparency of these funds.”
The GD states that last year radical opposition, NGOs, and their lobbyists “misled a significant part of the Georgian public” who rejected the law, adding: “We are the authorities elected by the Georgian people, and defending the dignity of the Georgian public is our main responsibility. No one should get away with deceiving the public.”
“It should be noted that comparable laws are in force in the United States of America, Israel, and Australia, and last year, the discussion of comparable laws has begun and is underway in the European Union, Great Britain, France, Canada, Slovakia, and Ukraine, which further confirms the relevance of this issue in terms of the protection of democracy and sovereignty. It is the sovereign right and responsibility of the state to ensure transparency of information concerning foreign funding to the people and their democratically mandated government,” – reads the statement.
Concluding the statement, GD notes that last year the NGOs and opposition “deliberately disrupted the substantive discussion of the law because they knew best that they had nothing to say and that all of their so-called arguments were empty lies.” The GD adds: “This year, everyone will have to enter into a substantive discussion, which will show the public the scale of the lies that they have inflicted on the Georgian public.”
Also Read:
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The European Commission, as well as local CSOs and opposition politicians, have repeatedly called on the Georgian Government to ensure the full independence of the judiciary and reform the system, including by introducing the extraordinary system of integrity checks for judges, with the involvement of international experts, the so-called “vetting” mechanism. However, the ruling Georgian Dream party has declared the issue “closed” and “unconstitutional” and even pushed back with demands to remove the sanctions against the judges and to apologize to them. Parliamentary Majority Leader Mamuka Mdinaradze on April 2 claimed that the U.S. sanctioning of Georgian judges reinforces the “petty campaign” against the judiciary that he said “is being driven by the NGO sector or the opposition UNM, along with its branches.”
In addition to Mdinaradze, other members of the GD referred to some unnamed NGOs and foreign forces of influence as leading the campaign to “discredit” the judiciary. The pro-government media Imedi and POSTV published a picture of three judges who had publicly declared their support for vetting at the Trevi Fountain in Rome together with the Resident Legal Advisor of the US Embassy in Tbilisi, claiming that the US Embassy representative was taking the pro-vetting judges on luxury trips abroad. Some GD members also picked up on this conspiracy.
Civil.ge collected some of the most recent statements from across the Georgian political spectrum on the situation in the judiciary and vetting.
Georgian Dream
Irakli Kobakhidze, Prime Minister of Georgia: “It is not good when certain types of privileges are used to interfere with the independence of the judiciary. You remember the case of Judge Chkhikvadze, when he was asked to give a report on a concrete case, and his visit to a certain country was canceled. [Prime Minister Kobakhidze is referring to the case of Judge Lasha Chkhikvadze, who in 2022 claimed that the U.S. and MEP Michael Gahler had asked him about his decision to imprison the then opposition-leaning Mtavari Arkhi TV head, Nika Gvaramia]. This very fact also shows that from the point of view of some people, privileges, including visits, are seen as an instrument to interfere with the independence of the judiciary, which is a very bad practice. This practice must be prevented.”
Mamuka Mdinaradze, Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader [March 31, on the judges’ visit to Italy]: “Perhaps it would be interesting to know more details about this, what the representatives of the Embassy and the judges themselves say, in relation to what, why they are [together in Italy], are they on a business trip or not; after that I would draw a more concrete conclusion, although any interference of any kind…means interference in any case…if some group is singled out as being the supporters of vetting and [if] there are some incentives for this, it is very unfortunate and more information about this would be interesting.”
Mamuka Mdinaradze, [March 24, on vetting]: “For us, this issue is closed. If someone brings any kind of arguments, any kind of evidence that Georgian judges need additional checking, then we could come back to this issue, but this issue is closed; and one of the main reasons for this is that in Georgia, decisions about the Georgian [Government] branches and in general about Georgia, and not only the Government branches, are made by Georgians themselves in this country; and for us it is unacceptable that any decisions can be made by representatives of a foreign country, no matter which country it may be, even any of our friendly countries. This is out of the question, this is not allowed, this is a bad precedent in general.”
Shalva Papuashvili, Speaker of the Parliament: “It is very unfortunate that due to some NGOs, which have the aim to gain political power, the participation of the foreign organization in the issues of the judiciary today is equal to the attack on the judiciary, hostile rhetoric against judges and moral terror against their family members, i.e. with everything that is anti-European.”
Kakha Kaladze, Tbilisi Mayor: “Let’s be direct: there are forces that want to subordinate courts and judges, to control everything themselves. Everything is crystal clear. We know everything about how campaigns are financed in this country, what this [process] is based on and for what purpose it is made. I think that the Georgian people have also analyzed everything very well and understand it very well and have put a name to everything. Georgia has the Constitution and its own laws, and we respect them. We are a sovereign country, an independent country and our ancestors fought for our independence, we have shed our blood for it. It is categorically important for us to maintain our sovereignty. Georgia is not a governorate or a state of any country. We are an independent country, we have our Constitution and everyone should be kind enough to respect all this.”
Gia Volski, GD MP, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament: “We must take a firm position that Georgia does not deserve to be humiliated, including by this vetting mechanism for the judiciary… Clear statistics show us that the Georgian judiciary does not deserve a humiliation, such as vetting, but is even exemplary in a number of recently published data”.
Davit Matikashvili, GD MP: “We expect our partners to rectify this injustice, to restore justice and to remove sanctions against those judges who were designated with false information, disinformation, bullying, thousands of wrong attitudes”.
Opposition:
Teona Akubardia, parliamentary faction Reforms Group: “Georgian Dream” is defending itself to be able to defend the clan in the judiciary, which is the way to its survival, and that is why it is attacking the European Union.”
Ana Tsitlidze, United National Movement: “The frentic shielding and fighting of Ivanishvili’s party to defend the judges sanctioned by the U.S. for being clannish and corrupt, is another clear confirmation that the power of Ivanishvili’s party rests on the judiciary.”
Khatia Dekanoidze, parliamentary faction Euro-optimists: “Georgian Dream” has portrayed Murusidze-Chinchaladze and all those sanctioned judges, who are presented as more powerful under this Government than under the previous one, as victims… “Georgian Dream” is in fact a power rested on the clan of judges.”
Grigol Gegelia, Lelo for Georgia: “We see once again very clearly how the Russian government of the Georgian Dream defends the clan of judges who first under the previous Government and then under the present Government destroyed the ideas of law and justice. These are the people who are afraid of integrity, who are afraid of any mechanism of clearing up integrity.”
Giorgi Gakharia, For Georgia: “In fact, by doing what “Georgian Dream” is doing in terms of this vetting, it is putting our sovereignty at risk… In fact, integrity can be checked either with the participation of foreigners or without their participation… Until the integrity check, we need to pass constitutional reforms, solve the problems of the High Council of Justice and the Supreme Court, believe me, our judiciary will become healthy by itself, because there are so many honest people, and the vetting, the check of integrity, especially with the participation of foreigners, would not be the issue at all”.
Also Read:
- 27/03/2024 – EU Ambassador: Vetting Remains Open Issue
Prosecutor’s Office has appealed to the competent Dutch authorities to arrest and extradite UNM-era former Chief Prosecutor and Justice Minister Zurab Adeishvili, convicted in absentia in Georgia on several criminal charges. The extradition request followed a report by the pro-government Imedi TV channel about Adeishvili’s visit to the Hague. On March 12, the Prosecutor’s Office appealed to Germany and Belgium with the same request.
Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili is visiting Brazil, where he has already met with his counterpart, Mauro Vieira, discussing bilateral cooperation, with particular emphasis on trade and economy. According to the official press release, the Ministers also spoke of global developments, Georgia’s EU integration, and the importance of EU candidate status. During the meeting, the Brazilian Foreign Minister emphasized his country’s strong support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Public Defender Levan Ioseliani released the 2023 annual parliamentary Report on the State of Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms in Georgia, covering a wide range of human rights issues, including major shortcomings that emerged or persisted during the reporting period. Among the other issues, the report focuses on human rights violations in or near the occupied territories, noting that the killers of Georgian citizens have still not been brought to justice, placing full responsibility on the Russian side.
Madona Maisuradze, a judge of the Rustavi City Court, claims her husband was pressured into leaving his job due to her public support for the “vetting” system. The Department of Common Courts reacted to the judge’s statement, calling it false, further adding that Giorgi Chemia was often absent or only partially present at the workplace, confirming his dismissal.
The Georgian Women’s Movement, a group of human rights and gender equality activists, and the Public Defender issued statements denouncing the bill initiated by the “Girchi” party and supported by the ruling majority that would abolish mandatory gender quotas for electoral party lists. In the meantime, MP Nino Tsilosani from the ruling party said in a statement that gender quotas as a form of positive discrimination have achieved its main task to a certain extent.